The present invention relates to devices for counting pills, capsules or the like ingested for medical purposes and more specifically, to such devices that are automated and based on vision analysis capabilities.
In the distribution of dosage-size quantities of prescription drugs in pill, capsule or other similar form the need to accurately count the prescription number is a tedious and often inaccurate task. Furthermore, in the case of pills, the counting methods currently used, i.e. handling with a spatula or similar device on a plastic or stainless steel tray, can often lead to attrition or erosion of the pills, thus possibly reducing the required dosage per pill.
It would therefore be of significant value to provide some type of xe2x80x9cautomatedxe2x80x9d pill counting aid that provided an accurate count of the individual pills or capsules without the need for the pharmacist to count them individually. Such a system could eliminate much of the handling and attrition currently encountered in the counting process and also improves the repetitive and tedious nature of the counting operation.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an accurate vision based counting aid that eliminates much of the handling and manual pill counting currently used.
It is another object of the present invention to provide such a vision based system that is immune from interferences that are normally present in the ambient conditions under which pill counting is accomplished.
According to the present invention there is provided a vision-based pill/capsule counting aid and method, which rely on an electronic camera and a source of detectable light to detect pill/capsule silhouette and thereby, through the use of appropriate software, provide an accurate pill/capsule count.
According to a highly preferred embodiment of the present invention low cost, inexpensive, low power, and cool infrared LED light sources are utilized. A highly preferred CMOS imaging integrated circuit detects the image of the pills. Through the use of appropriate software, the number of pills/capsules present in the field of view of the CMOS camera is determined and communicated to an operator via an appropriate display device.
According to an alternative preferred embodiment visual radiation is utilized in combination with a conventional CCD camera and appropriate software to obtain the required pixel count and related pill/capsule count.
According to an alternative preferred embodiment visual radiation is visible light rather than infrared and the imaging device is able to distinguish colors of visible light.
According to the present invention, there is also provided a method for assisting the pill counting process using the pill counting aid of the present invention.